Tricky
by LovelyObject
Summary: When Kagome is accidentally mistaken for someone else and kidnapped, things tend to get a bit tricky.
1. Chapter 1

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

A/N: This is my first attempt at a fanfic, so don't make fun! I've decided to finally sit my ass down and try to do this, because I've been meaning to for the longest time. I love constructive criticism, hate flames (I WILL flame you back), and adore any other comments. Please R&R and R&E (read and enjoy)!

Owarinai Yume

Of Friends and Follies

It wasn't hard to see what was going on. After all, this very same situation had repeated itself countless times since the beginning of creation, and would until creation's end came. Which was to say, never.

"Too afraid to hit me, idiot?" a boy with white hair and dog-ears taunted a dark-haired boy in a breastplate and loincloth. Shinguards were placed on the second boy's calves, a furry headband around the crown of his head, and something that resembled a tail poked out from his ass.

"Not at all. I just don't hit girls," the second boy responded coolly. The two of them were having a stand down in the middle of a road as their companions stood watching from the sidelines. Three girls, three guys, a kitsune, and two-tailed cat made up the bystanders. The first girl, a young thing no older than eighteen and wearing oddly short clothing was burying her head in the second girl's shoulder. The second girl was clad in a red and black body suit with a large bone boomerang strapped to her back, and the third girl was standing next to them, covered in gray and white furs. Two guys that were dressed similarly to their dark-haired companion were deep in discussion with a third male who was dressed in purple monks' robes.

The white-haired boy's left eyebrow began to tic irritably. "What did you just call me?!" his fists clenched at his sides, and his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

His opponent scoffed. "Deaf _and_ dumb! Why, Kagome, you really should abandon dog-breath here and come be my woman."

"Now wait just a damn minute! She's not going anywhere with you, wolf-boy. I won't allow it!"

"Excuse me?! Won't allow it?! Who do you think you are? You can't tell me what to do, and you certainly can't dictate who I hang out with! SIT!" the girl called Kagome immediately stopped bemoaning her troubles into her friend's shoulder and was now lividly standing over a roughly, half-demon shaped hole in the earth.

The man in monks' robes sighed. "I hate to say it, but you, my dear friend Inuyasha, really are stupid." He shook his head in disapproval, wondering if his friend hadn't learned enough about their female companion in the past few years to still act as if he dictated her actions.

"Yeah, Miroku's right! Miroku's right!" the little kitsune chorused. He was perched on top of said man's shoulder with his small arms crossed over his chest, looking down at the hole in the ground, a look of superiority on his child-like face.

"Shut UP, Shippo!" now out of his hole, Inuyasha was glaring daggers at anyone in the vicinity, daring them to speak after his humiliation. The girl that he had been fighting over with Kouga was now glaring back at him.

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Kagome turned away from the staring contest and to Inuyasha's adversary. "Well, it's been lovely seeing you, Kouga, but we really should be on our way." She gave him a bland little smile, which Inuyasha and Kouga both took as an encouragement towards the wolf-man.

"The pleasure was all mine," Kouga replied, bowing deeply towards her while pressing his lips gently to the back of her hand. Inuyasha turned his nose up at the scene and sulked.

Kagome sweat dropped for a moment, before closing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Kouga, as endearing as he was, just tried too hard to impress her. Eyes shining with false admiration in the hope that he would go away and leave her in peace, she said, "That's so kind of you to say! I wish that some _other guy_ I knew was more like you." The last bit was to get back at Inuyasha for being such a royal jerk to her friend, even if Kouga did go a little over the top in his displays of affection.

"So polite! I _knew_ I chose well. Mutt-face," Kouga turned to look at Inuyasha. "I trust you to keep my woman safe while I'm away." With one last simpering look in Kagome's direction, he sped off in a whirlwind of leaves, leaving his two cronies to catch up.

"Not so fast, Kouga! I just caught my breath! Wait up, please!" Ginta yelled, running with one arm out in front of him as if to catch the end of Kouga's tail.

"Yeah, yeah! Wait for us, Kouga!" Hakkaku's position mimicked Ginta's, arm out and a hand cupped to his lips. They were running side by side as fast as they could in hopes of catching up to their leader.

Everyone but Inuyasha watched them go, slightly amused at Ginta and Hakkaku's fruitless efforts to get Kouga to slow down. Inuyasha, for his part, was sitting cross-legged on the ground, face propped up on his fist, sulking, like a small child.

"Good riddance. Stupid wolf," he muttered, more to himself than to anyone in particular. Kouga always came around to bother them. Even if they were feeling down, or if they had just won a small battle against Naraku, Kouga never failed to show up and start doting on his Kagome.

Stupid, annoying, cocky, arrogant, unattached, wolfish prince. _Unattached._ That was the part that bothered him most. After all, wasn't he, Inuyasha, already attached to Kikyo by a promise that he had made so long ago? Wasn't he bound to another, forbidden to love Kagome? Unable to claim her as his own?

"No brains, doesn't care for his friends, weak, stupid, arrogant, smelly, absolutely mental…" he grumbled under his breath.

"Inuyasha," Kagome's voice wafted over to him. She hadn't moved from her position by his imprint in the earth. "Stop sulking."

"Wha-? Sulking? Who sulking? Me sulking? _Keh_! Not possible!" his voice rose and sank erratically, squeaking here and there in his attempt to cover up the fact that he had indeed been sulking.

"Yep. Definitely sulking. He gets that way every time Kouga comes around!" huffed Shippo. He rolled his big eyes, then settled his gaze disapprovingly on Inuyasha's form. "Of course, he should! Kagome, Kouga's a much better catch than dumb-ass here."

"Shippo! You shouldn't use such language. Apologize to Inuyasha!" Despite her almost-disapproving tone, Kagome couldn't help but smile at such an attempt to influence her love life. She ruffled his hair and bent down to search in her bag for a lollipop and some "chips potato".

"Sorry… Not!"

A small red mark appeared behind Inuyasha's left ear. "You little brat…!"

"Here we go…" Sango began.

Miroku finished her sentence for her. "Again."


	2. Chapter 2

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

A/N: Thanks you guys who reviewed! I love you with my heart and soul! So for you, this is the latest chapter of Owarinai Yume.

Owarinai Yume

A steaming fish-on-a-stick sat on top of a large leaf in front of him. Small mounds of various other things surrounded the speared fish, not all of which looked edible.

He looked down his nose at it, contemplating the poorly made meal. "Rin," he began in a tone that suggested his immense disapproval of the attempt to feed him. "What is this?"

A small, barefoot girl in a checkered orange kimono looked up at her companion. The spiky side ponytail on the left side of head bobbed as she turned her head. She had tied a green obi around her waist, and a similar stick of fish was in her hands. "It's fish," she pointed at aforementioned item.

The demon nearly rolled his eyes. "Yes, I had already deduced as much."

She sighed in response. "Those are mushrooms," Rin jabbed a small finger at a rather charred pile of something. "These are onions, these are radishes, these are carrots, and this," she said with a flourish, "is an apple." She grinned toothily at her companion, proud of what she had caught and what she had somehow obtained.

In reality, she had stolen the onions, radishes and carrots from the village nearby. The apple she had found in a basket by the hot spring that the women of the village liked to bathe in, and the fish she had caught in the river they were sitting next to. Mushrooms were easily found on the floor of the forest, especially since they were a beige-y color in a world of green and brown.

A green creature holding a food-laden leaf glared at the child, apparently jealous of the attention she was receiving from the demon. "I cooked it all, Lord Sesshomaru! The child is not capable of handling fire."

Sesshomaru glared at the green creature for glaring at the girl. No one could give his charge dirty looks. "Neither are you, Jaken, as is clear from the state of this food." He made sure to make his tone rather biting to compensate for his lack of respect towards Rin.

"But Lord Sesshomaru," Rin started, her tone pleading on the behalf of the creature named Jaken. "Rin likes it when her food is crunchy."

Sesshomaru looked at her with something almost akin to disdain. "Rin, just because the cooking is not up to par does not mean that your standards should fall." He turned his nose skyward, contemplating what to do next. His charge was about to get sick courtesy of Jaken's poor cooking, Jaken was about to start groveling at his feet, and he was on the brink of getting a killer headache.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken's rucksack-clad form appeared in front of him, for once without the twin-headed staff he liked to carry around. He lowered himself into a frog-like position and began to bow repeatedly, making his already toad-like self resemble said amphibian even more. "I beg of you to forgive this lowly being! I did not mean to offend you with the food I had so carefully prepared, it's just that I had not anticipated that the fire would be quite so hot, and that despicable human child had pushed me, and-"

"Jaken."

"Yes, Milord?" his eyes, along with the tone of his voice, quivered in a mix of excitement and fear.

"Shut up."

"Yes Milord! I will cease to sp-"

Sesshomaru gave him a frosty glare.

Jaken promptly shut his mouth and scuttled off, most likely to mope about his reprimand by his lord.

"Why does Jaken always talk so much, Lord Sesshomaru?" inquired Rin. She looked in the direction Jaken had run off in.

Sesshomaru gazed pointedly at her. "He does not know when to stop."

She nodded absently, taking a bite of her fish. Sesshomaru's gesture to shut up didn't even register on her radar. "Oh, okay."

They sat in silence for a while, with Rin munching on her lunch and Sesshomaru doing a very good impression of a statue.

A voice in the distance gradually became audible for Sesshomaru as its source came closer. At first, it was just a small hum, and then it began to get clearer and clearer until he could unmistakably recognize it as a young female.

"…and then he had the nerve to say that it wasn't a big deal and he didn't care!" it said, most definitely agitated by whatever the male in question had done. The voice heaved a rather large sigh.

"Well, what did you want him to do, Kagome?" a second female voice issued from the general direction the first voice had come from.

The first voice, dubbed Kagome by her companion, sighed again. "I don't know, Sango. But still! He could show some appreciation or something! Honestly, it isn't as if he gets to see a girl in the nude every day. What a jerk!"

Sango seemed to pause for a moment to think about how to console her friend. "Well, at least he has the decency not to go on and on about how 'lovely you looked, just like a cherry blossom in the moonlight!' or, ''my dearest Sango, surely you would indulge me in another showing?' Stupid pervert."

"At least he noticed! Inuyasha didn't even seem to register the fact that I was _naked_ in the middle of a freaking _hot spring_ at ALL!" countered Kagome. Her steps became shorter and heavier, and her voice was growing increasingly louder. On the last word of her small rant, she had become so agitated and the volume of her voice increased so much that even Rin could hear her.

"Lord Sesshomaru?" she inquired timidly, stopping mid-bite.

He remained unmoving.

Rin lowered the stick-fish. "What's going on?"

Sesshomaru wasn't even listening to what she had to say. In fact, the only word that had really registered among the meaningless chatter was "Inuyasha", his half-brother's name. 'She must be one of his charges,' he thought to himself. 'I do recall him traveling with a small band of humans.'

"Lord Sesshomaru, are you alright?" Rin's scared voice broke through his musings. Normally, he would always answer her questions promptly, or tell her to be quiet and stay still. It worried her immensely that her lord was unresponsive.

Before he had really even considered it, he was answering her. "Yes, I am fine, Rin."

Relief clearly washed over the little girl's face, replacing the worry that had been there moments earlier. "Oh, Rin is so glad, Lord Sesshomaru! It's just that Rin was getting worried because Lord Sesshomaru was not answering her question and she-"

"Your question." It was a command that she tell him her question.

Rin tilted her head to the side in an effort to remember. "What is going on? I can hear voices in that direction." she pointed a small finger in the direction of the road.

"It seems as if the half-breed's humans are passing by."

"Oh!" Rin's face brightened. "May we go visit Miss Kagome, please? I really want to see her again." Memories of the nice girl who had given her candy flooded Rin's mind, and a dreamy expression took over her face at the thought of having someone to play with. It was easy enough to entertain herself, but sometimes it was nice to have someone else there.

Sesshomaru took note of the happy, dream-like state of his charge's face and weighed the pros and cons of dropping by for a visit on his brother dearest.

On one hand, it would mean putting up with the volatility of his brother, which could possibly result in a short fight, meaning he would expend his energy on something that was not worthwhile. The girl Rin so liked to play with would ply him with various meaningless questions, and the rest would sit together and eye him warily for any sign that he was about to strike them.

On the other, his charge would be happy.

"Rin," he stood up in a single, fluid motion. The movement was so fast that if Rin had blinked, she would have missed it completely. "Get Ah-Un and follow me."

She jumped to her feet in a much less graceful manner. "Yes, Milord!" Rin saluted him, dashing off towards the trees. She stopped just before she completely disappeared to ask, "But what about Jaken?" Despite the kappa's poor treatment of her and distasteful demeanor where she was concerned, she still seemed to care about the green creature.

"He will be fine."

"Alright, then," she nodded to herself, gave a short little bow, and raced off to find the dragon named Ah-Un.


	3. Chapter 3

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! ^^ I'm so glad that you guys like it. Sorry this one is so short- I didn't want to lengthen it overmuch and I don't exactly have the time to right now. My absolutely lovely history teacher has given me an essay to write about Chile and its salmon industry (fun, right?), due Monday. I promise that I'll update as fast as I can- in the meantime, enjoy!

Owarinai Yume

Miroku watched as Sesshomaru's figure rose up into the sky on the dragon's cloud. "That went rather well, I thought."

"Keh," huffed Inuyasha. He scowled and started walking faster.

"What's up with him? Rin just came to play for a little bit," Kagome wondered out loud. The comment wasn't directed at anyone in particular. She picked up her pace to catch up with Inuyasha, careful not to let her bike's pedals catch on the back of her legs.

Indeed, Sesshomaru had simply appeared in front of them, perched on top of his dragon's back, and had remained that way for the duration of his visit. Rin had done the opposite. The moment that Ah-Un had gotten within four feet of the ground, she had leapt off and launched herself at Kagome. Greetings had been exchanged, candy doled out, and a few daisy chains made. The entire incident had only lasted about half an hour before Sesshomaru decided it was time to go. He beckoned his charge to him, and without any sign he had acknowledged Kagome or the other, left.

"Maybe it's because Sesshomaru didn't pay him any attention," Shippo mused. "You know Inuyasha- he's always itching for a good fight." The little kitsune shook his head and crossed his arms, trying to look like a wiser, older person. He was perched atop Kagome's bike handles.

"I heard that! Come over here and say it to my face!" Inuyasha yelled. He was quite far away from them at this point, about the size of Kagome's thumb from what she could tell.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Kagome sighed heavily. It seemed that, to her, she was the liaison between the two brothers that prevented them from killing each other. More specifically, to keep Inuyasha alive. Today hadn't been all that stressful. Aside from the waves of discomfort and PMS radiating off Inuyasha, nothing much had happened. Rin's visit was one of the calmer times that the two groups had been through.

"Well, I guess. It's really only to be expected, you know?" Sango said thoughtfully. She was absentmindedly stroking Kirara's fur, observing Inuyasha. "I mean, you sat him pretty hard. All that pent-up frustration was probably doubled when Sesshomaru came and didn't even acknowledge his presence. He was probably anticipating a fight, and since there wasn't one, there wasn't an outlet for him to use."

Kagome stopped short and wheeled around to face her friend. "Outlet? Are you kidding? Why would he need an outlet? He wasn't the one who was standing stark naked while his friends popped out of the bushes and gawked at him!" her temper was ignited.

"It wasn't a big deal! Besides, no one even cares!" Inuyasha's voice wafted from ahead on the path.

Kagome's temper flared to life. "Inuyasha, I swear as God and the Que-"

"Wait! It's not worth it. Keep it together for now, okay?" Sango reached out to touch Kagome's shoulder.

"Why?" The younger girl's temper calmed, smothered by her sudden curiosity.

"Because," Sango replied.

Kagome frowned. "That isn't a valid reason."

"I don't know. Just because, okay?"

---

A whirring sound could be heard. It was soft, almost unnoticeable, like white noise. The sound was present, but not all the way there. A soft glow emanated from the source of the noise, illuminating the dark room. Ten vaguely human-shaped blobs could be made out in the faint light. Seven were facing three.

"I can see them," one of the three said. Her form was illuminated from the light at her back. She had a barely audible voice, muted, almost, like the rest of the room. An image shimmered from the mirror she held in her arms.

"They are quarreling."

"What about them?" this time, one of the seven spoke. His voice was loud and rough in comparison to the rest of the room. "They're not doing much, anyways."

The two girls in the image were talking to each other, and a distant third figure clad in red could be seen. It seemed as if the argument had ended.

A man spoke, ignoring the other man. This one was one of the three. "I want you to find and retrieve that girl. Bring her here when you do." His voice was smooth, tone pleasant. Yet there was an underlying sense of danger in the way that he spoke.

"Why?" another one of the seven spoke.

The response was curt, tone still pleasant. "You don't need to know."

"Fine. How much are you offering?" the first man to speak asked.

"Fifty-thousand. I'll give you half now. You get the rest once you get the girl."

"Deal." The first of the seven stepped forward closer to the light and held out his hand to affirm the deal. A large halberd could now be made out on his back. There was a scar on his forehead and his hair was tied up in a thick braid.

"Good."

---

"So… We need to find this girl and bring her back to Naraku, right?" Jakotsu lazily examined his sword.

Bankotsu leaned over to look at his friend. "Yeah. Not our usual thing, but it'll have to do."

They were sitting side-by-side on a moss-covered rock, their backs to the sheer face of a cliff. The rest of their group was spread out around the clearing. Renkotsu and Ginkotsu were together, inseperable as always. Kyokotsu and Mukotsu had also paired up, and Suikotsu was off to the side by himself, gleefully sharpening his claws on a rather unfortunate tree.

"I guess so…" Jakotsu's eyes began to close halfway. He sheathed his sword on his back.

"Don't look so sullen. We need the funds- we're practically penniless!" Bankotsu frowned at his own statement. Being poor did not suit him well, as used as he was to finery, excess, and women.

Jakotsu jerked upright and threw his hands into the air before settling in a crossed-leg position. "But big brother, I'm so bored! There's no one around to kill anymore… all the warlords are at peace right now." He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

Bankotsu sighed, oddly humorless. "I know, I know. I am, too. We can't even raid a stupid village before we finish this task! He said to wait here until he sent us the instructions."

Renkotsu came over to then, riding on top of the monstrous tank that was Ginkotsu. "I don't understand why he couldn't give them to us sooner. We were just with him, after all."

"Geshi, geshi," Ginkotsu agreed. His eye, one of the few human parts left of him, looked solemnly at Bankotsu. The gears on his back turned in minor annoyance.

Bankotsu scowled and looked skyward. It was peaceful blue, with an almost porcelain-like quality to it. Here and there wispy clouds dotted the sky, looking as if a painter had used it to wipe off his excess paints.

A few months ago, he and his men had been run out of China by the collective power of the local warlords and the Emperor's army. The fight had been fun while it lasted, and his men had taken out more than eighty percent of the forces against them. After two days of straight battle, with Ginkotsu little more than a torso and head, Kyokotsu nearly dead, Mukotsu disfigured and the rest injured, they were forced to withdraw.

"We just have to stick it out for now, okay? Go spar with Suikotsu if you're that bored. He looks like he could use it." Bankotsu indicated the doctor, who had moved on from his original tree and was now in the process of shredding another one.

"He's right. I would love to," Suikotsu called out. He looked over his shoulder at the four, not even pausing in his obliteration of the tree, a Cheshire cat-esque grin on his face.

"Go," Bankotsu urged. "Have some fun. You look like you need to unwind a little bit." He waved Renkotsu off in Suikotsu's direction, a relaxed half-smile on his face.

Renkotsu looked over his shoulder at his comrade for a long moment, before turning back to Bankotsu. "I'll be back later." He jumped off Ginkotsu's back and strutted over to Suikotsu, who, having just finished off the second tree, was now starting to rip up a third. "Ne, Suikotsu."

"What?"

"Five seconds," Renkotsu took a swig from the gourd he kept on his belt and swished the liquid in his mouth for a few seconds. Then, he exhaled.

Suikotsu whipped around and jumped, just as Renkotsu's fire scorched and blackened the tree he had been shredding. He used a nearby branch to propel himself towards Renkotsu, folding his arms across his chest to make himself more aerodynamic.

He grinned at Renkotsu. "Is that it?"

"I wonder which one of them will win?" Jakotsu wondered idly to no one in particular. He watched the sparring in front of him with a bored, unimpressed air.

Suikotsu was on the offensive now, slashing and punching out, but not fast enough to harm Renkotsu. Renkotsu was jumping backwards and dodging from side to side to avoid being hit with the freshly sharpened claws attached to Suikotsu's fists.

Bankotsu watched his comrades with a minimal amount of interest. "I don't know. Probably Renkotsu. Suikotsu's stronger, but Renkotsu's smarter. Hey, do you figure we can trust this Naraku guy?" He turned to his best friend, eyes lit up with the prospect of analyzing his newest employer.

They had done this many times before, when they were at their pinnacle of prominence. Usually, after they had finished whatever odd job they'd been hired to do, they would receive their payment. After that, depending on whether or not they had decided their employer was trustworthy, they might kill aforementioned employer. At a minimum, this practice gave some amusement.

"How am I supposed to know? We've only just gotten the assignment. Ask Renkotsu- he's the smart one." Jakotsu gave Bankotsu a long, critical look that seemed to be asking if he was really so bored as to resort to asking questions that as of yet could not be answered.

"I think that our instructions have arrived!" Kyokotsu bellowed down. His enormous height gave him a vantage point that was inaccessible to the others.

An irritating humming sound filled the air not long after, and a massive purple-and-yellow bee descended from the skies. Its beady red eyes focused on Bankotsu as it made straight for him. Attached to its body were several sheets of paper.

"Geshi, geshi," Ginkotsu almost seemed to smile. He released several of his razor blades, aiming for the massive bug. It was split in half as it hovered in front of Bankotsu. The blade that ended its life curved just before it hit Bankotsu, racing back to its original place on Ginkotsu's back. The bug dropped to the ground immediately, dead. The load it was carrying, however, luckily remained untouched, dropping into Bankotsu's lap.

"Let's see," Bankotsu opened the pamphlet. It was a small map of Japan, and an even smaller note accompanied it. "You are… Hey, can you read this?" He turned to Jakotsu, who was hovering over his shoulder.

"Renkotsu!" called Jakotsu, cupping his hands over his mouth. "Come over here!" he gestured for the man in blue to come.

With a tremendous leap that seemed to defy gravity, Renkotsu landed in front of Jakotsu, Suikotsu right behind him. "What?"

"Can you read this?" Bankotsu shoved the note under Renkotsu's nose. "You're the smart one."

Renkotsu looked at it. "It's illegible." His tone was point-blank. The scrawl on the page blurred the ink together so that the characters were nearly illegible. "I can make out 'You are' 'Okayama' 'girl' and 'Edo'."

"So we're in Okayama," Bankotsu gazed at the map, pointing at the town with his index finger. "And we want to be in Edo…" He moved his finger northeast to a dot that had been labeled and circled in red ink.

Jakotsu frowned. "That'll take at least two weeks to cover." He looked displeased at the notion of the task taking so long. The method in which he preferred to do things was impulsive, and being attached to an assignment for an overly long length of time did not appeal to him at all.

Suikotsu looked at the sinking sun. There would only be a few hours until dark. "We'd better get going, then. There isn't that much time left today." He took his metal claws off, refastening them to his belt.

"We have to follow the sun," Renkotsu said plainly. He left the mini-grouping and went to his customary place on Ginkotsu's back.

"Mukotsu, Kyokotsu," called Bankotsu. "We're going."

Mukotsu looked up from the ingredients he was mixing together with a mortar and pestle. It was a noxious green and looked as if it would do serious bodily harm if it came into contact with flesh. He rubbed his hands together at the thought of how much havoc he could wreak with it. "Coming," he yelled back. Kyokotsu, who had been lounging beside him, stood up in preparation to go.

A/N: This is the map I used for the locations, and I will probably continue to use it. Take the spaces out of the link to view the map:

http : // historymedren . about . com / gi /dynamic /offsite .htm ?site = http : / / www . samurai %2 Darchives . com/ map3 .html

Okay! On another note, please tell me if you think any of the characters are being OOC! Don't forget to leave a review. ;)

Much love, NYCGirl89


	4. Chapter 4

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

A/N: For the record, I actually quite like trigonometry. Math is my favorite subject .

Owarinai Yume

"I'm going now, good-bye!" Kagome called over her shoulder. She had waited until the last possible second to say good-bye, to minimize the chance of Inuyasha stopping her. Already she had packed her bag and loaded it onto her bike, and her right foot was poised to stomp on the pedal the moment she was ready. Which was now.

"Bye, Kagome!" Shippo materialized out of nowhere. "Come back soon, I'll miss you! And good luck beating that trigonometry guy!"

"Sure," Kagome smiled at him, pedaling a little faster. She sweat-dropped. The only way to explain the concept of precalculus to Shippo and the reason why she had to go away so often was to explain it as a good-guys bad-guys scenario. Obviously, the subject was the super-villain. "I'll only be away for a few days, don't worry!"

A few minutes later, she was a scant five feet away from the well when a figure clad in red dropped in front of her bike, effectively blocking her path.

"And just _where_ do you think you're going?" a white eyebrow had developed a very serious-looking tic. Crossed arms and an impatiently tapping foot added to the overall feeling of annoyance that radiated from the figure.

"Um," she stalled, giving him her very best fake smile. "Home, maybe?"

The tic grew larger. "No. I won't allow it!"

"But I have a geometry test! And a kanji test! Not to mention that I'll fail the grade if I don't show up at least three days per month," Kagome pleaded. "I promise I'll bring back ramen?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"As a personal favor, even?"

"No."

"I _promise _I'll only be gone a week this time!"

"What happened to three days?"

Damn. He had her there.

Kagome thought for a split second. "I said at least three days. Don't make me say it, Inuyasha." She had tried to bribe him, beg him, and even ask for a favor from him. Her patience was reaching its rope's end.

Inuyasha scowled and stuck his nose in the air. "I said, NO. You're not going, and that's final." He replanted his feet firmly in front of the well.

"_Sit_."

With a resounding thud that startled the birds from their various perches on the trees, Kagome's path to the future was cleared.

"Sorry, had to, here's consolation, bye!" she dashed across Inuyasha's prone form, dropping a bag of potato chips as she went. She used on hand to propel herself over the old well's edge and smiled as the familiar feeling of vertigo took hold of her.

_I could jump off a bridge and I wouldn't feel any different,_ she thought to herself. Black and purple lights swirled around her and stars winked at her, bright points in time and moments held dear to someone.

"Three, two, one… and touchdown!" Kagome cheered quietly. With a bright flash of light, she landed on the earthen floor of the well. The thick green vines that had covered the walls of the well were gone. A yellow beam of sunlight shone through the shrine house's wooden doors, reaching halfway down the well before disappearing.

Kagome reached for a handhold in the stone walls of the well, deftly working her way up. She hauled herself up over the same ledge that she had so enthusiastically tossed herself over moments before, five hundred years ago, panting. "I need a ladder."

She took a moment to catch her breath again, and then raced up the steps to lock the door. Even though it wouldn't keep Inuyasha in if he really wanted her back, it would serve as a good deterrent. A well-used can of Doggie-B-Gone sat in the little box attached to the side of the well house.

"Mo-om, Souta, Jii-chan, I'm home!" Kagome yelled. She took off her shoes and dumped her dirty yellow backpack by the door before dashing towards the kitchen to greet her mother.

---

"Whaddya want, runt?" Inuyasha grumped. He had parked himself on the hill next to the well and was placidly eating potato chips.

The kitsune dubbed "runt" hopped up onto his knee. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Do I look like I care?"

"It's been two years since my father died," Shippo murmured, uncharacteristically nostalgic.

Inuyasha grunted. "Is that all?"

"Well, Sango and Miroku took off since Kagome left, and I wanted to visit Father's grave…" Shippo paused, waiting for a reaction. "If that's okay with you?"

"Sure. Go ahead. I'm not stoppin' you."

"I was kind of hoping you'd come with me…." Again he left the request hanging in the air, tilting his head to the side in a pleading manner. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, alright, fine! We'll go. Where is it?" Inuyasha scowled lightly at the well.

"It's west. We buried him near Toyama. Mother is right next to him…"

"It's _west_?" a small tic was developing in Inuyasha's left eye.

"Um," Shippo laughed nervously. "Well, yes."

"No. I'm not going west."

"But you promised!" Shippo pointed an accusing finger at Inuyasha's face.

Inuyasha promptly stood up, dumping the kitsune on the ground. "I didn't promise anything!"

"Pleeease? Kagome would take me!"

"I don't see her here right now, do you? We'll completely miss her if we go west! It takes too long and there are too many mountains." Inuyasha huffed.

"But… I haven't seen him in so long…" Shippo's eyes began to tear.

Inuyasha' heart softened a little towards the poor kitsune. He wasn't even sixty yet, and already he had experienced so much loss. At least he, Inuyasha, had had his mother until he could sufficiently take care of himself. "Alright, we'll go!" he yelled at Shippo, picking him up by the back of his jacket. "I'll meet you halfway there!" Inuyasha lobbed the kitsune over the trees.

"This is east, stupid!" Shippo yelled, disappearing over the trees.

---

"Let's see," Kagome tapped her pencil thoughtfully on her temple. "If sine is the opposite side divided by the hypotenuse, then this is divided by this, and equals that… Or is that cosine?" She picked up her calculator and looked at it, puzzled.

Trigonometry was _not_ her area of forte.

"Aargh!" she tossed her calculator on top of the open textbook and leaned back in her chain, massaging out the cramp that had developed in her shoulder. "I'll never get this…" It was one thing to miss school. It was another thing to miss school for three weeks and then go in just for testing. "Oh, god. Oh, my god!" she exclaimed, realizing that mathematical help could be at her fingertips in seconds. "Ayumi!"

"Moshi moshi?" Ayumi picked up on the third ring.

Kagome sighed in relief. "Ayumi! Hey, it's Kagome. I need your help. Really badly."

"Trig?" she asked knowingly. Kagome never could understand the complexities of math until she came to the rescue. "You know, I really should start making you pay me for all the tutoring I do!" Ayumi joked. "When should I come over?"

"Yesterday?" Kagome asked hopefully.

Ayumi smiled into the phone. "I'll be right there, okay? Don't panic. I need the textbook to be intact this time, Kagome."

"Thank you, thank you thank-" Kagome yelled into the receiver before Ayumi hung up. She grinned to herself. Out of all her friends in the modern era, Ayumi was the closest. Yuka and Eri were great, but they were a bit too airheaded sometimes. She hadn't gotten the chance to talk with any of them lately, which depressed her a little bit. Sango was great, but sometimes it was nice to have more than just one girlfriend to talk to.

Her thoughts turned to her friends five hundred years in the past. She knew Miroku and Sango would have left when she did, since she had said she would be gone for a week. Sango was probably paying her respects in the empty slayer village and doing maintenance on her hiraikotsu. Miroku was probably at Mushin's, doting on the old monk and generally hanging out with the man that raised him.

Shippo and Inuyasha were most likely waiting for her, then, in Kaede's village. Kagome idly wondered if they had been making trouble for each other. It would be typical of them to make a mess of things and wreak havoc on village, and then for Kaede to smack them around to have them do maintenance.

"Mrrr," Buyo, Kagome's ridiculously obese cat, got to his feet and stretched, brushing past Kagome's legs before darting downstairs with an agility hidden by his rolls of fat. Moments later, the doorbell chimed softly.

"Ayumi!" Kagome rushed to the door, yanking it open. Ayumi stood there, a small travel bag slung over her shoulder, grinning at Kagome.

"So, how's your pertussis?" Ayumi walked through the door nonchalantly, taking off her shoes as she went. "Your Jii-chan said it was really bad."

"Oh, that…" Kagome laughed nervously. "Alright, I guess. Anyways, why don't we go study in my room…? I grab snacks." She darted into the kitchen before Ayumi could utter another word.

Buyo waltzed through the doors, waving his tail lazily. "Mrr." He wove himself between Kagome's ankles, choking a little when she didn't adjust her stance to accommodate his girth.

"Honestly, Buyo. I don't know _where_ he gets all this stuff from! It's ridiculous. Jii-chan needs to lay off the med books for a while. I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to say I were at a boarding school in Switzerland or something," she told the cat, rubbing his fur with her toe. She grabbed a couple bags of potato chips and two cans of soda from the pantry before racing upstairs, where the much-need help was waiting.

---

Bankotsu idly ran his hand across the sharp end on his Banryuu, feeling the paper-thin blade brush his hand. Any closer and the skin on his palm would break.

"I wonder where we should unload these. What do you think, Oo-aniki?" Jakotsu asked from his perch at the head of a cart. Silks, urns, paintings, and various other goods spilled over its sides. Mukotsu sat at the head of the cart behind it, and Renkotsu at the helm of the last one. "We could always pawn it off at the next village. Suikotsu makes an excellent salesman." He laughed.

"Shut it." Suikotsu's scowl could be heard from his position next to Renkotsu.

Jakotsu laughed again and waved Suikotsu off. "Ooh, no need to get all moody. Be a team player, Suikotsu. We need to get rid of this somehow, anyways."

"I didn't say I wouldn't do it, did I?" Suikotsu snapped back.

"Suikotsu." Bankotsu gave him a warning glance from his perch on Jakotsu's cart.

"Right." Suikotsu took a deep breath, giving one last glare in Jakotsu's direction.

Jakotsu looked thoughtful for a moment. "That village wasn't much fun. It was too easy to take. And none of the men were handsome!" he sighed morosely and shifted to sit cross-legged, resting his chin on his upturned palm.

"Almost there," Mukotsu said. Kyokotsu had bent down to alert him of their close proximity to the village. Despite his close bond with the group, Kyokotsu rarely spoke, except to Mukotsu and Bankotsu. He generally avoided Jakotsu because of Jakotsu's insatiably social attitude.

"Time to change." Suikotsu frowned and concentrated for a bit, loosening the iron grip on his control. The green stripes on his face began to fade, shrinking and receding towards his jaw line. His hair became less wild, settling against his head and losing its green sheen. The vicious air that surrounded him dissipated, and a general aura of harmlessness took its place.

Within minutes the village came into sight. It was a small, disorderly nucleus of houses, surrounded by fields and irrigation systems. At the heart of the village was a large clearing where several market stalls were set up and people bustled about, browsing and buying the various wares that merchants set up.

"There it is! Look at all of the people, Oo-aniki." Jakotsu brightened up and pointed at the marketplace.

Bankotsu laughed and sheathed Banryuu. What was the point of going into a village to sell off the good pillaged from another village if the buyers are too scared to actually buy anything?

The carts rolled into the town noisily, announcing the arrival of the newest merchants selling their wares. Almost immediately, a swarm of peasants surrounded the carts, checking the quality of each item and what the new merchants had in stock. The Shichinintai found themselves rapidly exchanging goods for money. An hour later, the carts, goods, and horses had all been sold off.

"Not bad," Bankotsu grinned, picking up the sack of money to test its weight. "Let's go pay a visit to the lovely geisha house." He shook the bag a little bit in his brothers' direction.

"Oh," Jakotsu bit his lip. "I don't want to!" he shook his head vehemently, crossing his arms. "Those women don't interest me."

"Let's go," Suikotsu shook his head, as if to clear it, and the kind doctor's face disappeared in an instant. Green stripes suddenly marked his face and his hair spiked, regaining its previous green sheen. He smiled and took the bag from Bankotsu. "I say we have some fun."

"We should relax before finishing the job. After all, we've been on the road for almost two weeks now," Renkotsu seconded, not because he wanted to, but because he knew it would irk Jakotsu to be in such insincere company.

Jakotsu gave a melodramatic sigh before conceding. "Damn. I'm beat."

---

"The trade here is doing very well, ever since Lord Sano started sending his soldiers out on patrol to control the bandits," a geisha was saying mundanely. Bankotsu sighed inwardly and gulped down his sake. Geisha made great food and were terrific entertainment… just when they weren't talking. Although economics was a supposed topic of good discussions, it was just so _uninteresting_. Not that it was boring; it just ceased to interest him. The only economics that interested him were the ones that had to do with warfare and the cash flowing in the Shichinintai's direction.

"Hahaha!" A few feet away, Mukotsu was enjoying the company of his geisha. Any woman that spoke to him absolutely thrilled him. "You're so smart, Satsuki!"

"Oh, ohhh," Jakotsu was saying, leaning over the pile of make-up pooled between him and the girl that was attending him. She was explaining the various uses of each tool and what exactly each pot of face paints was good for. "I get it, yes, yes…" he was completely enthralled at the knowledge he was soaking in. For a mercenary, Jakotsu was unusually preoccupied with cross-dressing.

Bankotsu turned to the geisha that were dancing to the sound of a flute, clapping their hands and waving their fans. He took another gulp of his sake and smiled at the woman attending to him. "Sorry, what's your name again?"

"Yuki," she smiled at him, irritation flashing through her eyes. Yuki gripped the hem of her kimono tightly and shifted in her seated position a bit.

"Well, Yuki," Bankotsu started. "It's been great talking to you. Why don't you go see if anyone else would enjoy your company? It wouldn't be fair to monopolize you." He prayed she would go soon- if she didn't, he'd be asleep in five seconds.

"Sure." A hint of a scowl tugged at her features, and she left to greet the two newcomers. Aside from the Shichinintai, only five others were in the geisha house. Three were the men who had been there before them, and the two others were the newcomers. Surprisingly enough, one of the newcomers was a woman. Unsurprisingly, she looked pissed.

Yuki sat the pair down next to Bankotsu, then left to fetch them food and drink.

"Houshi-sama, I don't know what you think you're doing," the woman started, looking peeved. She gripped her skirt like Yuki had done to her kimono before.

"I am merely here to appreciate some of the lovely female company this village has to offer," he gave his companion a cheesy grin. "And I must say, some of it is lovely indeed."

Bankotsu grinned. Here was a conversation worth listening to.

"Houshi-sama…" the woman trailed off, her expression growing progressively more and more irritated. "You bastard! Take that!" she slapped him hard across the face, and the crack of flesh-on-flesh could be heard.

The monk's face was now turned towards Bankotsu, and tears gathered in his eyes from the force of the blow. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it! I couldn't help myself."

"Oh, yeah? Well, help this!" she brought her weapon down over his head and stormed outside.

"Sorry about that," the monk apologized to Bankotsu.

"Why?" Bankotsu laughed. "You didn't touch my ass."

"Yeah, well, it runs in the family." The monk laughed ruefully.

"What, groping people?"

"What can I tell you? It's a habit passed from generation to generation." He shook his head sheepishly.

"Bankotsu." Bankotsu offered his hand to the monk.

The monk took the proffered hand and shook it. "Miroku."

A/N: Oh, god, I owe a HUGE apology to anyone who was waiting for this!!! I promise that from now on I'm going to update at least once a month. Don't worry, I haven't abandoned this story yet! Also, if anyone's interested, my muse has been going AWOL for some time now. I do think it's time to find another…

Much love, NYCGirl89


	5. Chapter 5

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

A/N: For the record, I actually quite like trigonometry. Math is my favorite subject .

Owarinai Yume

Testing hadn't been _that _awful. It had just been mildly terrifying. Visions of right triangles and various angles swam in front of her head, taunting her.

"Oh… God…" Kagome groaned, putting her head in the crook of her arm. Her head pounded. She was sitting in the middle of her school's cafeteria by herself. Other high school kids were sitting and talking all around her, filling the room with their chatter.

Images of right triangles danced in front of her, giving her a throbbing headache.

"How was it?" Ayumi came up to her with two ice cream cones and sat down next to her. Yuka and Eri weren't far behind.

"Awful. But I think that I'll score okay. You?" Kagome asked half-heartedly. At least she wouldn't be scoring the poorest out of her grade. Despite his kindheartedness and popularity, Hojo was not the brightest bulb in the shed.

Ayumi nodded in understanding and handed Kagome her ice cream. "Pretty okay. I don't think I missed anything, but I got a little mixed up on angles of depression-"

"Stop. Please. No more. I can't take all this math…" she groaned again and buried her head back in her arm. "Ayumi, you're so lucky…"

"Kagome, are you okay? Your rheumatism isn't acting up again, is it?" Yuka tapped her between the shoulder blades. "'Cause your ice cream's sort of going to melt on your head. Want me to prop you up?" She plopped down on her other side, and Eri slid into the seat across from her.

"No thanks." Kagome's muffled voice was heard, and then a sharp yelp as the scoop landed squarely on the back of her neck. She groaned again. "I'm going home. I'll see you guys later?"

"Sure," they chorused. "We'll let you know how you did." Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi all exchanged glances. "See you later" in Kagome-talk meant "see you after I'm done being horribly sick" in normal-people-talk.

"Thanks, guys. Sorry I'm being such a downer. I'll make it up to you, I promise!" she offered a small smile before hightailing it home.

---

A traveling army had stopped his group on their way to their battlefield.

"Move it!" the general demanded. His chest was puffed up with the reassurance that his entire army lay behind him.

"What if we don't?" Bankotsu drawled. He crossed his arms over his chest in languid defiance.

The general snorted. Did this youth have a particular death wish? There were seven in his group of young men, and hundreds of well-trained samurai at his disposal. "I'll have to make you move."

"You could always get out of our way," Bankotsu suggested derisively. Watching the veins pop out of this general's forehead was entertaining. It promised a quick, refreshing skirmish. There wasn't enough unrest and strife in Japan to properly suit his tastes.

"What did you say?!" the general roared down at Bankotsu from his position on horseback.

Bankotsu scoffed. "I said, _you _could always get out of _our_ way."

"You'll pay for that comment, you little wretch," the general's voice was low and deadly. He almost pitied the seven youths in front of him. Seven, most likely untrained, youths against hundreds of well-trained, well-conditioned samurai were not good odds.

Bankotsu stared blankly at the general. He uttered a single, derisive word. "How?"

"Like this!" roared the general, raising his sword skyward. His archers shot arrows at the Shichinintai, hitting Kyokotsu and glancing off Ginkotsu's armor. Renkotsu and Mukotsu burned and melted the arrows headed their way, and Jakotsu broke the rest of the arrows with Jakotsuto while they were still in the air.

"Are you sure? Didn't look like much." Bankotsu yawned lazily and strode past him, motioning for the rest of the group to follow after him.

A bushy, greasy black left half of a unibrow twitched on the general's face. More veins bulged apoplectically on his temples. His face began to take on a dangerously purple color. "Damn you insolent little bastards!" He twisted on the back of his horse to face the Shichinintai and his army. His horse shifted uncomfortably at the rage pulsing through its rider.

"Samurai- strike!" His army surged forward at the command, katanas drawn, and a deep, booming warcry was let loose. The veins that had bulged in his temples went down, and the purple color left his face. Satisfaction filled the general as his army went to cut down the insolent youths that dared insult him.

Bankotsu drew Banryuu from her position on his back and spun her above his head, grinning. "Do as you please."

The Shichinintai spread out around him in a neat, orderly V-shape. Renkostu stood on his right and Jakotsu to his left. Both had drawn out their weapons of choice.

"This'll be too short to enjoy, Oo-aniki!" Jakotsu whined. He used his blade to scratch under his chin and to remove any trace of stubble.

"It's better than nothing," Renkotsu reprimanded him, smiling despite his annoyance at Jakotsu's childish behavior. He took a swig of the liquid in his gourd and swished it around in his mouth.

The general's army rushed at them, lines upon lines of men, coming at them, surrounding them. Before they could get within ten feet of the Shichinintai, the first line was struck dead.

A few men in the middle rows had caught on fire with Renkotsu's inferno. There was a deep gouge in the earth where Bankotsu had swung Banryuu, mercilessly slaughtering anyone in front of him with the mere pressure that his blade had given off. The ranks that had stood before him were gone, leaving a gaping space in the circle of warriors surrounding the Shichinintai.

Metal sliding on metal sang across the bloodied battlefield as the Jakotsuto returned to Jakotsu. Jakotsu ran his tongue lightly on the flat side of his blade, tasting the blood of the fifty-odd men he had just killed. "Gross. They taste of dried sweat and grime." He spat the blood out and scowled. The expression on his face was almost playful, except for his overriding disgust.

Kyokotsu had swept his bulbous arm across the field, taking out roughly twenty men, and Mukotsu had unleashed a gaseous acid upon the unwitting samurai. The green mist melted their armor onto their bodies, annihilating all it came into contact with.

Ginkotsu simply stood where he was, letting his saw blades fly around. They swept through the samurai, disabling or decapitating those that they touched. Suikotsu was running through the warriors, slashing at them and efficiently killing his opponents.

The general sat, dumfounded, atop his mount. These seven youths that had opposed him earlier had had every right to do so. His heart filled with remorse at the men he had just sent to their deaths. Grief ate at him, an aching, painful feeling that spread through his body for his lost subordinates. And it pissed him off that seven young men had defeated the majority of his army so quickly.

Bankotsu let Banryuu's destruction reign once more, dropping his right arm downwards in a graceful, crescent-shaped sweep. Another gouge opened in the earth, and the remaining army was gone.

Less than two minutes had passed since the start of this battle.

"Why-y-y you-!" The apoplectically bulging veins were back, with even more force this time because of the bloody battlefield. Not a single speck of blood had marred any of the Shichinintai's clothing. The general reached for his tanto, flinging it at the back of Bankotsu's unguarded neck.

---

"Ramen, ramen, ramen.. Ah-h-h, ramen!" Kagome rummaged through the pantry at her house. Her oversized yellow backpack sagged at her feet. Only textbooks sat at its bottom. The rest of the main pouch gaped at her, waiting to be filled with instant food and other cooking supplies. Her clothes and toiletries filled its various other pockets.

She was due in the Sengoku Jidai right about now. Actually, she had promised to be there an hour ago. Or rather, five hundred years and an hour ago.

A pot for boiling water was hastily stuffed into the backpack, along with Inuyasha's ramen, Sango's dumplings, Miroku's pocky, Shippo's chocolate and lollies, and Kirara's fish bits. Several packages of beef jerky were also tossed in for Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku. She hooked a clear plastic Nalgene bottle to the side of the bag, hefted it onto her back with a heavy, unladylike grunt, and staggered out of the house to the well.

"Heavy…" Kagome complained softly to herself. The bag wasn't actually that heavy anymore. Years of carrying it had conditioned her for the initial load of crap that she always took with her. Of course, it didn't really count for much since her initial load was usually significantly diminished when she got to the Sengoku Jidai. Kaede was always so kind as to lend her hut as a storage space for her.

She let herself nearly fall down the steps, using gravity to propel herself forward instead of her leg muscles, and then sat on the well's edge for a moment. Kagome leaned backwards, pushing on her tiptoes, and then dropped into the well head-first.

The familiar purple-black light of the well engulfed her, and the memory-stars winked from afar. A vague, curious interest took hold of her for the memories that weren't hers. She knew without knowing for certain that she could never reach those other starry points in time. They neither belonged to her nor had any association with her. Her destination was a star marked especially for her, a white dot lightly dyed blue.

Kagome spread her arms out and pretended that she was flying. It was easy to imagine that she was doing so, especially since she was suspended as she was. The lights sped by her and the blue one marked as her raced forward as if to greet her.

"Three.. two… one… touchdown!" She positioned her body so that her feet touched on the star first. White light engulfed her; the blank space between the dimensions, and then her brown penny loafers hit the solid ground of the dry well.

---

Bankotsu gently handed the general his tanto and smiled almost kindly. "I do believe that this is yours."

The general spat at his feet. "Fuck you."

"Ooh, someone's asking for it." Jakotsu's eyes glittered with gleeful malice. "Can I play with him, Oo-aniki? I know he's not my type, but there's slim pickings here."

Bankotsu flipped the small knife in the air, snatched it by its hilt, and plunged it into the general's neck. "Too late." He tossed his braid, smiled, and continued to walk the same way he had been going before the general had interrupted him.

---

A/N: Special early X-mas chapter for you guys! Just like I promised. Well, okay, I didn't exactly promise. But here it is! Let's see if I can get a New Year's chapter up. What do you guys say? Can anyone guess what's going to happen next? Also, I would very much appreciate any beta-reader suggestions. I'm currently lacking one and would love to have one, but I don't particularly have the time/effort/energy in me to go surfing all over for a good one.

Lots of love and wishing you a happy holiday, NYCGirl89


	6. Chapter 6

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

Owarinai Yume

Blood. Death. Frustration. Fear.

Scents of a typical battlefield wafted from upwind to his sensitive nose.

"Inuyasha? What's wrong?" Shippo tapped the side of Inuyasha's head. When he didn't get an immediate response, he began tugging on Inuyasha's cheek.

A tic began to make itself known in Inuyasha's right eyebrow. "Runt…"

"Yeah?" Shippo ceased his abuse of the hanyou's face.

"Stop or I'll rip your head off."

"I already did." The kitsune scowled. It wasn't his fault Inuyasha just stood there like a deaf mute.

"Shut up," Inuyasha ordered. He focused on the scents coming at him. If there was a demonic aura in that battle, then it likely meant that a jewel shard was nearby. "Damn it. She's never here when I need her!"

"Who's never here? What's wrong?" the scent of frustration came from Inuyasha's right shoulder. Stupid Inuyasha, thought Shippo. He only said what was on his mind when one of the humans was around.

"Kagome. There's been a battle upwind… Can't you smell it? A jewel shard could be nearby."

"Oh." The scent disappeared. Shippo nodded his head sagely in understanding. "So are we gonna go after it?" he craned his neck upwind and took a whiff. Typical scents of a skirmish entered his senses. They were fresh, so whatever had occurred didn't happen all that long ago.

"Nope. No demon." Inuyasha relaxed. He hated chasing jewel shards without Kagome, even though he'd never admit it. It was always so damn _difficult_ to find them!

"Okay. Let's go, then. Father's grave is only about a few miles away from here."

The pair continued their trek towards Shippo's father's grave.

---

A blur of red shot over the treetops.

"Oo-aniki," Renkotsu watched the blur. "What is that?"

Bankotsu looked over his shoulder at Renkotsu from his position at the head of the group. "Aren't you supposed to be the smart one? I know about as much as you do."

Renkotsu scowled inwardly. He hated when Bankotsu talked down to him. If his survival didn't depend on Bankotsu, he would have assassinated the brat a long time ago. Of course, it didn't help that Bankotsu was so much stronger than he was. This reminder of his weakness inflated his inner scowl even more.

"Check with Kyokotsu. He might be able to see better," Jakotsu suggested. He was walking in step with Bankotsu at the head of the group.

Kyokotsu, with Mukotsu riding on his shoulder, squinted at the red blur. "It looks like a demon of some sort. Maybe a bird? Its got something on its right side."

"Thanks." Renkotsu thanked Kyokotsu through gritted teeth. If not Bankotsu, then he would most definitely take out Jakotsu before he died.

The Shichinintai lapsed into silence and continued walking on the road.

---

A/N: Sorry everyone!!! Anyways, I did promise an update for New Year's…. I just hadn't quite figured out DocX. Well, that's over now. Big thanks to WitchyGirl99, my beta! I love you!

Happy New Year's!

Much love, NYCGirl89


	7. Chapter 7

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

_**EXTRA SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO:**_ WitchyGirl99, my lovely beta, for putting up with me.

Early A/N: Model UN trip coming up this weekend! How exciting, right? It'll be my first. I had to write a position paper on it- absolutely no fun. I'm representing a country that's fairly obscure. Almost everyone I asked had no idea it even existed! It's very difficult to write a position paper on your country's stance on a certain subject if that country has virtually no presence. So, enough with my rambling…. Here it is!

Owarinai Yume

Kikyo frowned. The young woman standing in front of her huffed in frustration and glared at her from under immensely long eyelashes. "Chinatsu-san, it will not do you any good if you cannot identify which herbs are good for medicinal use and which are not."

Chinatsu didn't stop glaring. If anything, the intensity of her glare grew. "It's not my fault that they all look the same. Besides, I don't even want to be a priestess."

Kikyo sighed. This girl was difficult. _She_ hadn't wanted to be a priestess either, but it wasn't as if there was a choice in the matter. What had to be done had to be done, and that was that. "Your wishes do not matter. The village headman has already decided that you are to be the next priestess, and your parents are in full support of his decision."

"But I want to be able to have a family! I want to be able to do what I want. I don't want to be chained to some stupid duty just because some old fart-"

"Chinatsu-san, you will speak politely of your elders in my presence."

"Just because some _old fart_ wants me to!" Chinatsu finished, purposefully emphasizing the title she had given to the headman.

"Chinatsu-chan!" Another girl from the village ran up to join them. "Why are you here with Kikyo-sama? Aren't your lessons finished yet?"

"Just finished, Riko-chan. Kikyo-sama was just leaving." Chinatsu looked pointedly at Kikyo. Kikyo, for her part, gathered her red cape and swept off, shooting an icy glare at Chinatsu, despite her best efforts not to. Aside from their personal differences, they looked almost the same. Sharply cut bangs, pale skin, wide brown eyes, and long hair characterized both; except that Chinatsu wore her hair down and Kikyo pulled hers back in a ponytail.

Chinatsu scowled one last time in Kikyo's direction. Shaking her head, she turned towards Riko. "So, what were you saying?"

---

They had arrived at the village of Edo exactly one hour ago, according to the position of the sun in the sky and Renkotsu's ability to tell time. And so far, Bankotsu would be damned if they could find this girl Naraku wanted so desperately.

One of the small oil paintings that had been given to the Shichinintai was now in Bankotsu's hand. Renkotsu, Suikotsu, and Kyokotsu held the other copies. Bankotsu and Jakotsu had so far been to the market place and compared the portrait to every girl they could find, and were now searching the rice paddies that branched out from the village. Of course, the fact that the painting had been slightly smeared with blood and was ripped in a couple of places didn't help.

A young woman's face peered out from the torn paper. Black bangs, wide brown eyes, and a straight nose decorated the portrait. Her mouth was relaxed, neither smiling nor frowning. Two lines extended from the end of her jaw and trailed off, meant to indicate the approximate likeness of her neck. Aside from that, the paper was empty.

"Do you think that she'll be here?" Jakotsu wondered idly. He had fallen into step next to Bankotsu, no longer a subordinate, but as a friend and an equal.

Bankotsu thought for a moment. If they had managed to cover the areas they agreed to split up into well, then the odds were that one of them was bound to find the girl. "Dunno. I hope so."

"Me, too. I find it to be rather tedious to look for some flighty wench when we could be doing other things." Jakotsu nodded seriously. He gave Bankotsu a sideways glance to check his friend's reaction.

"What other things? The China escape left us trapped here. Not much to do around this place, if you've noticed." Bankotsu scowled. Playing fetch for some rich client was not his style. He was a mercenary, not a bounty hunter. This girl that they were looking for must be one hell of a catch if seven mercenaries had to be hired to retrieve her.

Jakotsu nodded his agreement, voicing the words Bankotsu had thought. "Yeah. It's sad when mercenaries have to become bounty hunters."

They lapsed into a comfortable, contemplative silence, continuing their trek out towards the fields.

---

Kagome tossed her bag up and out of the well first, then used the vines snaking down its length to climb out herself. The walls of the well were much easier to shimmy up with the help of the thick green ropes. She grabbed the well's rim and pushed up to support her body as she clambered out of the well onto solid ground.

Her pink bicycle, faithful as ever, was leaning against the Goshinboku. Its tires were slightly deflated, but it was still usable, at least until her next trip back to the modern era.

"I'll have to bring the tire pump with me next time," Kagome muttered to herself, appraising the bike's current condition. It also needed another coat of paint.

She promptly grabbed her yellow bag, which was sitting a few feet away, and plunked it on the rack attached to the back of her bike. Then she fastened it to the rack with some old bungee cords she had found in a random shelf in her Jii-chan's storage room and wheeled the whole thing towards the road leading to the village.

The road to Kaede's village was one of the better ones. At best, it was dry and fairly smooth near villages because the villager's footsteps and the occasional horse had worn it down. At worst, it was muddy and impossible to bike over. It was a direct pathway through the rice paddies surrounding the village to the main residential area, and branched out through the fields for the farmers' convenience.

Kagome hopped on her bike with ease, pushing off from the top of the hill of Inuyasha's forest and gliding down towards the village. The weight from her backpack added to the momentum of her downhill ride, and she shot down the hill, happy to not have to pedal. People dotted the rice paddies, planting the seedlings of their crops.

A girl about Kagome's age was in one of the closer paddies, being harassed by what looked like to be two men; one was completely unburdened and the other looked as if he were serving as a pack mule. She observed the interaction between them distantly, interested, but not intrigued enough to go over to find out exactly what was happening. The unburdened man with the blue bandana was showing something to his partner, and the girl was going about her business uneasily, ignoring them.

"What are they doing…?" she wondered aloud.

"Simple, my dear girl. They're looking for someone." An ancient voice came from out of nowhere. Kagome jumped in surprise, and her bike gave a funny little hop to the side, tilting and jerking off-route. It was now en-route to crashing into a paddy and potentially ruining some poor villager's crop.

"Myouga!"

The tiny little flea demon's response was simply to stick his mouth into the vein in the crease of her elbow. Kagome, irritated, slapped him off. The motion caused her to lose grip on the handlebar of her bike… which sent it toppling over, unbalanced, straight into the paddy where the men were.

"Please do accept my sincerest apologies!" squeaked Myouga at the sight of the men. He made a tiny bow before darting off to wherever he had come from.

"Kagome-sama! You're back!" the farmer girl peered down at her in delight from her position above Kagome.

"Oh… hi?" Kagome greeted the girl quizzically. She felt bad for not knowing who the girl was.

"Are you okay?" the girl bent down and hoisted the bike off of Kagome's sprawled form. She put it aside, placing it on the road it had fallen off.

"I think so…" Kagome hoisted herself off the ground and adjusted her skirt uncomfortably. The stares she got from the two men unnerved her a bit- especially the one from the man with metal all over his face. It seemed to almost be drilled into his skull.

Her helper nodded and gave a little bow. "I'm sorry, but I have to get back to work now. Kaede is out in the herb garden if you need her." She abruptly turned away from the miko and began shoving seeds into the ground.

"Um," Kagome gave the two men a once-over. "Can I help you?"

The metal-man stepped back, allowing his blue-clad friend to step forward. The man in blue gripped a small sheet of paper in his hands, and Kagome could just make out the vague outlines of a portrait from the back. "Are you her?" he squinted at the paper, then at Kagome.

"I don't know. Who are you looking for?" Kagome climbed back out onto the road, righting her bike and getting ready to mount it. "Do you know what she does?"

The man drew another piece of paper from his pocket and consulted it. "It says she's a priestess in training..."

Damn. Just this one time, was it so much to ask to just not be bothered by everyone? Jewel shards were difficult enough to hunt down without getting involved in other things. Normally, she would chastise Inuyasha for that mind-frame, but sometimes, it was understandable. Her profession, as gratifying as it was, was not what she would have chosen given a choice. "That's me, I think."

"You think?"

"Well, I'm a miko and I'm in training, so yeah…" Right foot on pedal, Kagome thought. If the men get too weird, _bike_.

"Do you know Naraku-san?"

Light bulb. And an important bit of information. Naraku was looking for a priestess-in-training, who was almost definitely not her, for some nefarious purpose or another. She didn't know exactly what for, but she knew Naraku was in need of something with spiritual powers now.

"Well?" the man asked impatiently.

"I know him," Kagome smiled politely. Finding Inuyasha was a priority now. "Sorry, but I really have to get going. I'll see you later, maybe!" With that, she pedaled off as fast as she could go to the safety of Kaede's hut.

---

"Oo-aniki will be pleased."

"Gesh, gesh."

"She seems to be the one. The picture looks just like her! And she's a real miko. I could feel the ki radiating off her… makes me uncomfortable."

"Gesh, gesh."

Renkotsu rolled up the papers and stuck them back in his pocket. Granted, the picture _did_ look like the girl on the strange pink contraption. But, it also looked like a dozen other girls he and Ginkotsu had come across in the past few hours. Obviously, the artist who had made the little painting did a shit job of it. The only real lead on this particular girl was the miko-training. Power came off her in waves. For the amount that they were being paid to retrieve her, she had to be powerful. Two plus two equaled four.

"Okay. Let's go."

---

"Runt. We're late. Let's go." Inuyasha tapped his foot impatiently on the side of a nearby tree root. Two plain grave markers stood at the base of the tree the root belonged to. A bit of moss clung to one, and dandelions grew at the base of the other.

The clearing they stood in was small, no more than ten feet in diameter. It was nestled in the middle of a dense, thick wood. Luckily for the smaller, less resilient plants, the majority of the trees weren't very tall, so sunlight was allowed to stream through.

"…" Shippo glared at Inuyasha from the corner of his eyes. He was bent down in prayer before his parents' graves. Earlier, he had solemnly laid down small bouquets of wildflowers in front of the markers. His mother's flowers were purple, since it had been her favorite color. His father's flowers were green. His father had always said that green was the greatest color of them all, because it was the color of his mother's eyes.

"We've been here hours. Kagome's probably back at that old hag's place waiting for us."

"Okay." With the mention of Kagome, Shippo gave one last deep bow of respect to his parents and jumped on Inuyasha's shoulder.

Upon contact, the hanyou dashed off into the trees towards Edo. "Took long enough."

Shippo said nothing, instead choosing to look back at his parents' grave one last time before they disappeared into the mass of greenery that surrounded them.

---

Kaede bustled about her herb garden, plucking weeds with the efficient speed of years worth of practice and harvesting the plants that had fully matured. Her basket was about half full with various types of herbs- not all, which Kagome was loath to admit, she could identify.

Kagome had spent about two years learning about herblore from Kaede. Actually, it was only about a few weeks if the time she actually spent on herbs were to be calculated. A few hours here and there were dedicated to identifying and using the medicinal plants, but it hadn't done all that much good. Sure, Kagome could now ID several of the more important herbs, like ones that would speed healing or relieve food poisoning (hey, sometimes the ingredients in the feudal era weren't exactly the cleanest), but otherwise she knew jack-shit about what she was doing.

"They've all gone. Inuyasha and Shippo are at Shippo's parents' graves, and Miroku and Sango took off to go see that priest with the fat badger."

"You mean Mushin-sama?" Kagome stared at Kaede quizzically. It wasn't like the old woman at all to call Mushin "that priest with the fat badger." She had never once heard Hachi described as a "fat badger," true as it was.

"I guess ye would know better than I, child."

"Will they be back soon?" Disappointment flooded through Kagome. If they weren't there, then it was moot to even go to the feudal era. In spite of her growing control over her powers and her progress in fighting, she would probably die at the hands of a minor, power-hungry demon without Sango, Kirara, Miroku, or Inuyasha.

Kaede paused in her harvesting. "I know not. Mayhap they are already on their way back. Sango and Miroku said they would only be a few days. They should be arriving here shortly. As for Inuyasha and Shippo, they ought to have been here by now."

"Maybe they just stayed a little longer by Shippo's parents' graves. To pay their respects, you know?"

"Yes," Kaede agreed. "You are most likely correct."

"I guess I'll just wait it out here, then."

---

"I think that you've taken a wrong turn."

"Impossible."

"Well, I don't recognize any of this."

"That's because we're walking in the opposite direction."

"But, houshi-sama, wasn't there a waterfall somewhere?" Sango glanced at her surroundings and tried to recall the wilderness she had traversed on the way to Mushin's temple. A waterfall had most definitely been a part of that. And somehow, if the monk was right, it had mysteriously disappeared.

"Maybe." Miroku's voice was edged with frustration and his stride was tense.

Sango had two words for this situation: Oh. Shit.

---

"You found her?!" Bankotsu was elated. Renkotsu had managed to do his job properly for once. He had actually _found_ the damned girl, even when everyone else couldn't. Granted, it had been more like _she_ had found _him_, but Bankotsu wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Renkotsu folded his arms across his chest and nodded solemnly. "Yes, Oo-aniki. She is in the village with the old woman as we speak."

"Great! This is great. Now we just need to grab her and go. Is anyone around to interfere?" Bankotsu rubbed his hands together and turned towards Jakotsu.

"I know as much as you do." Jakotsu replied.

"Renkotsu!"

"Yes?"

"Is there anyone to interfere?"

"I don't believe so, no. All her companions are supposedly out on their own separate journeys at the moment." Renkotsu withdrew a map of the town from his kimono. "This is a map of the area. The old priestess's hut is this one." He used his finger to indicate which of the squares belonged to Kaede.

"So, you write this down for me, okay?" Bankotsu plowed on without waiting for a response. "We'll surround it. I'll go this way, and you can go that way, and Jakotsu can wait right here, and Suikotsu can pretend to be injured…"

---

A/N: I beg you all for forgiveness! I know that it's been slow. Excruciatingly so. I'm trying to figure out how to deal with everyone right now… I do have a plot in mind. Wait until next chapter, my lovely readers… it should be coming soon…

Much love, NYCGirl89


	8. Chapter 8

_**DISCLAIMER:**_ I don't own Inuyasha… I just exploit it ;)

Super special thanks to WitchyGirl99, whose lovely beta skills helped this story, and whose amazing fics keep me from that terrible ailment called boredom. 

_**A/N:**_ I'm sorry for the long wait! Can't blame me, though – I was vacationing in California. If you've never been to Napa or Sonoma, put it on your list of things to do. The wine was amazing! It's got to be one of the most amazing foodie experiences I've ever had. I was totally blissed out.

SF was great, too. It's so different from NYC! Saw a show there with terrible acting, decent singing, and amazing costumes. The highlight of my trip, though, had to be the tranny show. Asia[subscript]sf was amazing! It was (for lack of a better word) insane!

Enough of my ranting… here's what I've written!

Owarinai Yume

Kagome watched in horror as the injured man Kaede had been helping punched out the old woman. Kaede immediately collapsed, unconscious.

"Hello, priestess." The man stood up and brushed himself off before approaching her.

_Oh, shit._

"H-h-hello…"

The man stretched and removed the bandages Kaede had carefully put on over the long gash in his arm, tossing them behind him. He extracted a small bottle from within his clothing and poured its contents over the wound so that it completely enveloped them. Greenish liquid spilled over his arm, oozing in and around the wound and emitting a horrible, pungent odor. He watched it for a moment as the gash began to knit itself back together before turning towards Kagome.

"You're coming with us." There was no room for refusal in his voice.

Kagome's hand crept out to the ground beside her for her bow. Except it wasn't there. She scanned her surroundings as surreptitiously as she could for the missing weapon.

"Are you looking for something?" A figure dropped from the lofty green heights of a nearby tree, holding her bow in their hands. Kagome couldn't discern if this one was male or female. "Pity I've found it first."

The first man scowled at being upstaged. He grabbed Kagome, frozen in her spot on the ground, by the arm and hauled her to her feet.

"Don't be so rough." Another figure emerged from behind a nearby hut. "Let go." This one was clearly male, despite the long braid. He approached Kagome and her captor without hesitation, waving her captor off. "Are you sure this is her? She doesn't look like much."

"It is."

Kagome blanched as another man stepped out into her field of vision – the same one that had given her the creeps in the paddy. How many of them were there?

"I'll take your word for it then. Now." The one with the braid turned towards Kagome. "Get up. We're going."

***

Bankotsu huffed in annoyance as the girl in his arms shifted towards the ground yet again. She had managed to coerce them into bringing the funny looking pink metal contraption, and had soon after tried to escape on it. Mukotsu knocked her out with gas, and ever since, Bankotsu, Renkotsu, Kyokotsu, Jakotsu, and Suikotsu had taken turns carrying the unconscious girl. Mukotsu was too small to take her weight, and Ginkotsu's armor would have injured her.

"When will she be conscious again?" Bankotsu turned towards Mukotsu, silently cursing the potency of his brother's concoctions.

Mukotsu snorted at Bankotsu's predicament. "In another hour. She should be able to carry her own weight a few hours after that."

"She's such a burden," Jakotsu complained under his breath. "Wouldn't we be better off if she had an accident?" He looked hopefully at Bankotsu.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Silence took over so that the only noise came from the girl's occasional snores and Kyokotsu's heavy footfalls. This girl was an easy haul for them, Bankotsu mused. The payment for her capture negated any trouble that she might cause or the inconvenience of keeping her well fed and relatively comfortable. And so far, the only troublesome inconvenience was her dead weight in his arms. His Banryu was too big to accommodate both her and the girl, and so he was forced to carry the girl in his arms. He had hooked his left arm under her knees and his right arm supported her shoulders. It would have been almost romantic, except for their current circumstance.

At the very least, she was better to look at than his brothers…

"Hey…" Jakotsu started up after a few hours. The sun was starting to sink lower in the sky, dyeing the world a sad kind of dim red color. Kagome had since been passed from Bankotsu to Renkotsu to Kyokotsu, who was just handing her to Jakotsu.

Bankotsu almost rolled his eyes. Jakotsu was probably going to ask about disposing of the girl for the umpteenth time. "What?"

"Do you feel that?" For the most depraved of them all, with the exception of Suikotsu, Jakotsu was strangely the most apt at sensing auras.

"No," Bankotsu replied. "What is it?"

"Holy energy. It's very strong and very angry." Jakotsu stopped and paused, lifting his face towards the source like how a dog turns its head towards an especially fragrant dead squirrel.

Moments later, Bankotsu could feel a faint trace of the holy energy. It was a small dot on his radar – so small, in fact, that if Jakotsu hadn't pointed it out, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"How far away?" His Shichinintai might not be youkai, but the small threat of a powerful priestess was still a threat.

Jakotsu looked at him, a mixture of incredulity and peevishness. "What am I, some kind of homing pigeon? I have no idea." He flounced forward a little faster, nose in the air. After about five steps, he tossed another look behind him. "Besides, it's definitely not close enough to do anything."

Bankotsu nodded absently and plodded on. This girl was like a sack of potatoes: helpless and heavy, but still useful. His arms were beginning to ache with the prolonged strain of holding her upright and being positioned awkwardly. She insisted on twisting in her sleep, and so he had had to adjust his arms accordingly.

"Renkotsu," Bankotsu called his second-in-command. "Your turn to take her." He promptly turned around and dumped the girl in Renkotsu's arms.

***

Sine. Cotangent. Secant. Cosecant. Tangent. Cosine. The six trigonometric functions danced in front of Kagome's eyes like schoolyard bullies, taunting and terrorizing her. She stood alone in a dark space of nothing while the functions, twice as big as she was, rotated and scintillated around her.

"I'm sorry, Kagome, but you're going to have to repeat your current grade. I can't let you move on if you've failed mathematics. As it is, you've received Cs in English and chemistry. Maybe it'll be better this way." The voice of her principal came from nowhere. Its sound surrounded her, like how the voice-track of a movie did at the theater.

Now, two Cs and a fat, hairy F joined the nightmarish functions on their endless dance around her.

Kagome sank to the ground, floored at the horrors of her grades. Math, as hard as it was, was doable. She had a grip on the material, precarious though it might be, but a grip nonetheless. English and chemistry? English was OK, since it was usually just regurgitating vocabulary, and chemistry was just naming and arranging compounds and memorizing formulas.

Panic began to set in. What if she couldn't get into a good college? As much as she liked the Sengoku Jidai, she wasn't prepared to live the rest of her life there. Decades without new clothes? Or any form of electronic connection? She would miss Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi for sure.

The F came closer, and its hairs began to brush against her face.

"Kagome, I can't believe you. I'm so disappointed," her mother's voice rang out, heartbroken with shame.

"Hey, sis, at this rate I'll be the first to graduate!"

"Who cares? This just means you'll have more time to search for the shards."

More voices poured into her head, coalescing into a loud, almost angry buzz.

The functions and letters pressed in, coming closer and closer…

Kagome screamed.

***

"Is she okay?" Jakotsu stood over the body of the girl. She had jerked violently after Renkotsu had taken her, flinging herself out of his arms. Then, after landing on the ground in a cloud of dust, she had clumsily pushed herself up, muttered a few expletives and fell back down, unconscious.

"Suikotsu," Renkotsu called, guiltily leaning over the girl. He had, after all, been responsible for her well-being.

Suikotsu lumbered over, surprisingly light footed for his immense size. He picked her up by the front of her… kimono, and shook her lightly.

When she didn't respond, he declared, "She's fine."

The girl's head lolled back, and her esophagus stood out on her neck. Suikotsu promptly dropped her.

"I think you killed her." Bankotsu crouched across from Renkotsu, at Jakotsu's feet. He precariously extended a finger until it touched her neck, poking her none too gently. "Didn't you used to be a doctor?"

Suikotsu scowled at this and stalked off. He had been a doctor – Bankotsu hadn't.

"Uhnn…" A low moan was elicited from the girl when Jakotsu toed her forehead.

"She's okay, see?" Renkotsu pointed out. He looked relieved.

The girl struggled to hold onto her tentative grip on consciousness, twitching ever so slightly. A small wrinkle of concentration appeared on her otherwise unblemished forehead.

Jakotsu snorted and turned his head away, as if watching the girl's display of weakness was beneath him. "Looks a bit wonky to me."

"Hey." Bankotsu poked her again. "Can you get up?"

The girl opened her eyes this time, narrowing them when she saw Bankotsu. "Who are you?"

"What's your name?" Bankotsu countered.

"Higurashi. Higurashi Kagome," she answered immediately. It seemed to be almost a reflex.

"Bankotsu," Bankotsu introduced himself. "And these are my brothers." He turned and pointed at each of them in turn. "Renkotsu, Suikotsu, Jakotsu, Mukotsu, Ginkotsu, and Kyokotsu."

***

Kagome looked around at the men surrounding her, concentrating for a moment on Kyokotsu and Ginkotsu. She relaxed for a split second after. The two odd-looking men weren't youkai. By the same token, they also would go unaffected by her holy ki.

She tensed up again.

The men around her exchanged looks, silently communicating with each other. Kagome felt oddly left out, even though she had no place among them.

"Your turn, Jakotsu," the man in the blue bandanna – Renkotsu, she reminded herself – announced.

Kagome almost flinched when she realized she had met this man before – him, and the one decked out in metal contraptions that could potentially be used for sadistic purposes.

The one called Jakotsu scowled for a moment at Renkotsu before redirecting his gaze towards Kagome. After a moment, he swooped down and picked her up.

"Hey – watch the hands! Let go of me!" Kagome exclaimed. She squirmed a bit, wriggling around in Jakotsu's grasp. Ostensibly, he looked delicate to the point of fragility. This impression was quickly shattered.

Jakotsu dropped her unceremoniously back on the ground. He wore an expression of utter shock on his face. The corners of his carefully manicured eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened ever so slightly.

"Ow," Kagome complained, glaring at Jakotsu.

"You asked for it," he replied.

Kagome sat and steamed for a bit. He was right, so criticism was out of the question.

A few moments went by before anyone said or did anything.

"How can you move?" the smallest one, Mukotsu, approached her eagerly. His bumbling waddle and toad-like face reminded her of a certain green-skinned imp.

Kagome furrowed her brow. "Huh?"

The little man opened his mouth to speak, and would have if the braided boy hadn't spoken up. "He means, how can you move after taking in his knock-out poison?"

"You gave me a _roofie_?" Kagome looked at the little man incredulously. She didn't even know roofies _existed_ in the Sengoku Jidai.

"No…" Mukotsu said cautiously. "A _poison_." He came closer, slinking forward with a certain sliminess that creeped her out.

Kagome scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, unsteadily balancing herself. She towered over the poison-maker by at least two feet. "D-don't come any closer."

"Mukotsu, don't scare her." Bankotsu lightly pushed him away. He turned to Kagome. "You can stand. Can you walk?"

The man behind her, Suikotsu, pushed her. Kagome wobbled a few unsteady steps forward. "She can't walk well."

_No shit, Sherlock,_ Kagome thought angrily. Today was not a good day, she decided. First, seven brutes had kidnapped her. Then, said brutes had drugged her, dropped her, and pushed her.

"What did you do with my things?" she demanded, instead of orating her thoughts.

She was ignored.

"Carry her, then," the braided boy ordered. He swept past her and continued down the road.

Without further ado, Suikotsu picked her up and put her over his shoulder with a grunt. The six remaining men fell in with the boy, following him to where he was headed.


End file.
